Dialogues

Here you can work with dialogues of the lesson

I. Welcome to Russia!

a) Listen to the dialogue and read the translation

Listen to the dialogue between a tourist and the passport control officer. The tourist, named John Brown, has just arrived to Russia from America. After his passport is checked, John asks the officer where the baggage claim area is. Then he thanks the officer and says goodbye.

II. First contacts

Listen to the phrases. Drag the English phrases from the list below and drop them into the corresponding fields.

Phrase 1

Phrase 2

Phrase 3

Phrase 4

Phrase 5

Phrase 6

Phrase 7

Phrase 8

5Hello.

1Thank you!

8Your passport, please.

3Welcome to Russia!

4Where is the baggage claim area?

6Excuse me.

7Good bye!

2Are you from America?

Vocabulary

Here you can learn words and expressions of the lesson.

I. Addressing other people

Polite forms of address

The Russian language has respectful and familiar forms of address to other people. The polite form is used in formal situations or if you are you talking to someone you don't know very well. Russian familiar form is generally used among friends and relatives.

In this course, we mainly use polite phrases for formal situations.

a) Learn Russian words:

Transcription

я

[ya]

I

вы

[vi]

you (formal)

господин

[gaspadin]

mister

госпожа

[gaspaja]

missis, miss

b) Build phrases in Russian:

Particularities of Russian sentences

Absence of the present tense of "to be"
In Russian, the present tense of "to be" (like in English: am, is, are) is not used.

Read the following examples:

Я Джон Браун. – I am John Brown.Вы из Канады. – You are from Canada.Это Александр. – This is Alexander.

So, building phrases in Russian, you can just omit the present tense of "to be".

Read more

Drag and drop the following words to build phrases. You can read correct answers by clicking the button "Display answers"

я

господин

Стив

Тайлер

вы

госпожа

Браун

Реббекка

c0101212

I'm Rebbecca

Я Реббекка

Я Реббекка.

Are you Steve?

Вы Стив

Вы Стив?

Are you Mr Brown?

Вы господин Браун

Вы господин Браун?

Are you Mrs Tyler?

Вы госпожа Тайлер?

Вы госпожа Тайлер?

II. Where are you from?

a) Learn the following Russian words:

Transcription

американец

[amirikanits]

American (for a man)

американка

[amirikanka]

American (for a man)

канадец

[kanadits]

Canadian (for a man)

канадка

[kanatka]

Canadian (for a woman)

англичанин

[anglichanin]

Englishman

англичанка

[anglichanka]

Englishwoman

b) Translate phrases from English into Russian

Particularities of Russian sentences

Absence of articles
In English, there are articles "the" and "a". The Russian language has no articles.

Look at the following examples:

Я англичанин. – I am an Englishman.Я из США. – I am from the USA. Это билет. – This is a ticket.

So, building phrases in Russian, you can just omit all articles.

Read more

Phrases to translate

1. I am Canadian. (for a man)

Check yourself

2. I am an Englishman.

Check yourself

3. I'm American. (for a man)

Check yourself

4. I'm English. (for a woman)

Check yourself

5. I'm American. (for a woman)

Check yourself

c) Lear the following expressions:

Transcription

из Великобритании

[iz vilikabritani]

from Great Britain

из США

[is se she a]

from the USA

из Канады

[anglichanka]

from Canada

из Австралии

[iz afstralii]

from Australia

из России

[iz rassii]

from Russia

d) Build phrases in Russian:

Drag and drop the following words to build phrases. You can listen and read correct answers by clicking the button "Display answers"

In Russian, simple questions do not use special constructions. So, in most cases, questions are marked only by intonation.

As previously mentioned, building phrases in Russian, you can omit all articles and the present tense of "to be".

Read more

a) Listen and repeat the following examples

Вы госпожа Браун?[vi gaspaja braoon?]

-

Да, я Джоана Браун.[da, ya djoana braoon]

Are you Mrs. Brown? - Yes, I'm Joana Brown.

Вы американец?[vi amirikanits?]

-

Да, я американец.[da, ya amirikanits]

Are you an American? - Yes, I'm an American.

Вы из США?[vi is se she a?]

-

Да, я из США.[da, ya is se she a]

Are you from the USA? - Yes, I'm from the USA.

b) Answer the questions in Russian following the model and check yourself:

Model:

Вы господин Сэм Блэк?[vi gaspadin sem blek?]

-

Да, я Сэм Блэк.[da, ya sem blek]

Are you Mister Sam Black? - Yes, I'm Sam Black.

Questions

Вы господин Сэм Блэк? - ...

[vi gaspadin sem blek?]

Check yourself

Вы госпожа Мэрилин Блэк? - ...

[vi gaspaja merilin blek?]

Check yourself

Вы Сэм Уайт? - ...

[vi sem ooayt?]

Check yourself

Вы Джина Грей? - ...

[vi djina grey?]

Check yourself

Вы Линда Стоун? - ...

[vi linda stooon?]

Check yourself

II. Where are you from?

b) Listen to the phrases and find out where the speaking person is from:

Drag and drop the flags and press "Check answers"

Person 1

Person 2

Person 3

Person 4

Person 5

4

5

2

3

1

III. It is a passport

Construction Это ...

In the dialogue you could see the Russian word это[eta] which means "it" or "this". This word may be used in the following construction:

It is a passport.

Это паспорт.[eta paspart]

a) Give a positive answer following the model and check yourself:

Model:

Это паспорт?[eta paspart?]

-

Да, это паспорт.[da, eta paspart]

Is it a pasport? - Yes, it is a passport.

Questions

Это такси? - ...

[eta taksi?]

Check yourself

Это метро? - ...

[eta mitro]

Check yourself

Это багаж? - ...

[eta bagash]

Check yourself

b) Give a negative answer following the model and check yourself:

Model:

Это паспорт? (visa)[eta paspart?]

-

Нет, это виза.[nyet eta viza]

Is it a pasport? (visa) - No, it is a visa.

Questions

Это Джон? (Sam) - ...

[eta djon?]

Check yourself

Это виза? (passport) - ...

[eta viza?]

Check yourself

Это билет? (visa) - ...

[eta bilyet?]

Check yourself

IV. This is my ticket

Grammatical gender in Russian

All Russian nouns have gender: masculine, feminine or neuter. It is an important grammatical category in Russian and it is impossible to build a correct phrase in Russian without knowing the gender of nouns. One of the difficulties with gender of nouns consists in the fact that in a phrase the form of adjectives, pronouns, some numbers and some verb tenses will depend of the related noun’s gender.

Look at the following examples with the word мой "my" that will change its form depending on the gender of the modified noun:

For example, if you want to say "interesting book" in Russian, first of all you should know the gender of the Russian noun "книга" (book) and then choose a correct form of the adjective "интересный" from the three forms: "интересный" for masculine, "интересная" for feminine and "интересное" for neuter. The noun "книга" belongs to the feminine, so the correct translation for "interesting book" is "интересная книга".

However, if the form of adjective, pronoun etc. is not correctly chosen and does not correspond to the noun’s gender, the phrase may be not correct, but still understandable for Russian people in most cases.

Read more

a) Listen and repeat the following examples :

мой паспорт[moy paspart]

my passport

моя виза[maya viza]

my visa

мой билет[moy bilyet]

my ticket

мой багаж[moy bagash]

my luggage

моё такси[mayo taksi]

my taxi

b) Translate phrases from English into Russian:

Phrases to translate

1. It's my ticket.

Check yourself

2. It's my taxi.

Check yourself

3. It's my passport.

Check yourself

4. It's my luggage.

Check yourself

5. It's my visa.

Check yourself

V. Where is the baggage claim area?

Construction Где находится ... ?

In the dialogue you could see the following construction:

Where is the baggage claim area?

Где находится выдача багажа?[gdye nahoditsa vidacha bagaja?]

a) Translate phrases from English into Russian:

Phrases to translate

1. Where is the entrance?

Check yourself

2. Where is the bar?

Check yourself

3. Where is the W.C.?

Check yourself

4. Where is the exit?

Check yourself

5. Where is the information office?

Check yourself

b) Ask questions in Russian:

Polite address

If you address yourself to an unknown person with a question, you should begin your question with the following expression:

Excuse me, please, ...

Извините, пожалуйста, ... [izviniti pajaloosta]

Ask a stranger:

1. - the way to the W.C.

Check yourself

2. - the way to the café

Check yourself

3. - the way to the exit

Check yourself

4. - the way to the bar

Check yourself

Revision

Here you can do exercises for Russian grammar and lexical material of the lesson.